My good friend Sarah often invokes the help of her “parking angel” when she negotiates impossibly-crowded parking lots. I’ve seen her angel in action a couple of times. Parking spaces do indeed seem to open up–even at Costco!
So, in this season of everything cookie, when I ran into some turbulence in my cookie baking, I decided to conjure up my own angel– the one assigned to cover cookie outcomes and general baking mishaps. Her name is Kim.
The backstory: King Arthur Flour featured a Maple Shortbread Sandwich Cookie recipe in their just-out holiday baking catalogue. I am a believer in the King Arthur Flour Company. They sell consistently wonderful (and reliable) flours. Theirs’ is an employee-owned company. And…they operate an incredible “Customer Hotline” where home cooks can call and speak to a patient baking expert at no charge. Good people, too. Here is a link to their site: King Arthur Flour.
Over the years, I’ve found some great recipes on the King Arthur site. Their Lemon Bliss Cake, for example, is a knockout. (You can find my take on their recipe here.) In this case, the prominence they gave to this Maple Shortbread Cookie recipe in the holiday catalogue told me that this cookie must be excellent. (It was.)
Mid-cookie, though, I ran into a crisis. The cookie dough wouldn’t release from my pricey new cookie presses.
Oh!, believe me, I gave it my best effort.
I carefully buttered the cookie press.
I dipped the press into flour.
I dusted the top of the cookies.
Still. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.
In frustration (and yielding to my healthy Irish temper), I confess that I whammed the cookie press on the side of the pan so loudly that my Juliet shot me that “Mom’s in a mood” look and then retreated to the peace and quiet of her bed in the far corner of my home.
Still stuck.
Then, midway through my troubled cookie baking experience–and after briefly questioning my loyalty to KAF–the cookies started to inexplicably drop from my cookie press in reasonable condition.
Wow! That Kim is a keeper.
Maple Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
- Cookies
- 1 C. soft unsalted butter
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1/4 C. granulated sugar
- 1/2 C. maple sugar
- 1 t. maple flavor
- 2 1/4 C. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 3/4 C. almond flour
- Filling
- 2 T. soft unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
- 1/2 t. salt
- 2 T. maple syrup
- 1/2 t. vanilla extract
- 1/4 t. maple flavor
- 1 T. milk (optional, if needed to make a spreadable filling)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Step 2 Prepare two cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Step 3 Cream butter, salt, sugars and maple flavor in the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Step 4 When butter is creamed, whisk the two flours together and then add the two flours to the butter mixture. Mix briefly until the two flours are thoroughly combined. Divide dough in half. Form dough into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in your refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Step 5 When dough is chilled, remove one disk at a time from the refrigerator and let it sit on your counter for a few minutes for the dough to warm up enough to be workable. Divide the dough into tablespoon-sized pieces (about 25 grams for each piece).
- Step 6 If using cookie presses, lightly brush butter on to each press. Dip cookie press into flour. Dip each dough ball into flour. Then, press the cookie stamps firmly into each dough ball. Tap the cookie press to dislodge the dough and arrange cookies on the lined cookie pan. If not using a cookie press, form dough into balls and then press them flat with the bottom of a glass.
- Step 7 Bake cookies for 23 to 28 minutes until they begin to brown.
- Step 8 Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then, transfer the cookies to a rack and continue to cool completely.
- Step 9 To make the filling, add all the filling ingredients (except the milk) to a bowl and mix. You want the filling to have a spreadable texture. If it is too stiff, add a bit of milk to thin it.
- Step 10 Spread filling on the bottom half of each cookie. Top with the remaining cookie.
- Step 11 These cookies are best on the second day after they have been baked.
Here is a link to King Arthur Flour’s original recipe: KAF Maple Sandwich Cookies.
